Featured Is this a coin?

The medallion in question is set in a typical silver filigree Eastern European hanukkah lamp. I can't figure out the iconography and its origins and would like your help. Is it a coin? What does it show? I feel it can help me date the lamp.

 

It is a beauty, Ruth.
As you said, Eastern European, although I have seen them here in the Netherlands as well. The ones here are probably from Ashkenazim from Poland, many of whom ended up here in the 19th century. Yours could be Polish made as well.

Maybe the symbol on the medallion is connected with a town, a coat of arms?

Current Polish municipal coats of arms (old ones could be different):
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Municipal_coats_of_arms_in_Poland

 

Here's one with the same medallions
https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auc...polish-silver-filigree-baal-shem-tov-hannukah

 

Wow, quite a find! I looked at a number of similar lamps but all the medallions I found were blank. What does it show? Is it a bunch of arrows and a sword?

 

I'll definitely try comparing it to town emblems. I suppose it can be any of the hundreds of shtetls across the pale of settlement.

 

Or something else entirely. And some coats of arms change over time, even more so during the Communist era.

 

But it looks like Polish origin is a pretty safe bet.

 

On the Sotheby's version, it does look like arrows, but on yours it looks more like leaves. The croissant shaped thing in the middle looks like weat. So I wondered if it could have something to do with the 4 species. The longer thing in the middle looks a bit like a besamim

 

That's an interesting thought. I would guess the silversmith had the medallions ready and didn't design them himself, so they would have to have universal Polish meaning, but everything is possible.

 

"Besamim" is a Hebrew word that literally means "spice" or "scent",is that definition correct ?

 

Yes. In this case it signifies a spice holder for the ceremony that ends the sabbath.

 

Is the encircling object (c shaped) perhaps a laurel leaf wreath?

Debora

 

Ruth's is an oil menorah, not candles. Those are actually "proper" from what I remember, since the miracle was that the oil for the Temple lampstand was only supposed to last for one night and lasted for eight. That's another indicator it could be an oldie.

 

Someplace in the back corners of my memory I remember seeing that design on postage stamps. Just don't ask me whose.

I don't associate filigree silver with Poland. Could it have been made somewhere like Portugal and exported?

 

Ruth-That's a truly magnificent piece,do you know it's history ?
Here's another one i found on the Sotheby's site (different from yours,but somewhat similar).
https://www.sothebys.com/en/buy/auc...ilver-large-hannukah-lamp-vincenz-c?locale=en

 

That's definitely a solid direction. I'll try and find similar contemporaries.

Polish or Russian stamps? Do you hapen to remember?
Actually, filigree silver is a very typical Polish/Russian Jewish technique. There are thousands of artefacts in various collections.

Thanks! Yes, it has a prestigious provenance. It belongs to the estate of the second Israeli president, Yitzhak Ben Tzvi, native of Russian Empire (now Ukraine), deceased 1963. While received as a gift for his 70th birthday, it probably reminded him of home in the town of Poltava.
The lamp you found is very Austrian and while the general design is that of a lamp and so similar, the details are very much unlike - for example, the repousse work, the rail design, the flowers, all of which can be found on numerous non-jewish silver objects from Austria. The lamp at hand is more folk-artsy-Polish-Russian, albeit a very well made one.

 

Absolutely. And non-Jewish Eastern European as well.
In fact silver and gold filigree was made all over Europe, but certain regions produced more than others.
I think many people in the US associate filigree with Portugal because Portugal exported a lot of filigree.

 

I wonder if it will end up in a museum-it's got some deep history.You're knowledge is impressive-curatorial.

 

I usually go mentally to Portugal and Italy first, because they exported a pile to the USA. That is if it's not Chinese; they made a ton for export too. The medallion rings bells, but bedarned if I know from where; my brain might be conflating it with some old Norwegian ones.

Since it's already in Israel, it's where it belongs. When I still sold on eBay, I shipped more than one more contemporary menorah there. So of course I'm going to a Chanukkah party tonight and can't find mine! (figures!)